View full sizeStudents and community members gather on Wed., Oct. 10, for a protest against the University of South Alabama Police Department's use of force in the shooting death of Gil Collar, 18. (Theresa Seiger/tseiger@al.com)

MOBILE, Alabama -- The people at Change.org are pitching in
to promote a petition to get University of South Alabama police more training
in the use of "less lethal" force in the wake of the shooting death
of Gil Collar, 18.

Still, it's unclear whether university officials will
acknowledge the more than 300 signatures gathered, according to nursing student
Caroline de Freitas, who started the petition.

It's been a week since de Freitas contacted the office of
USA President Gordon Moulton, but she still hasn't been able to set up a time
to present the signatures to him.

Calls to USA were not returned by the time of this publishing.

"I hoped that this would be the beginning of a dialogue
between university officials, law enforcement, students and the giant pool of
expert faculty at USA," de Freitas said. "I was hoping I would get
their [campus officials] collaboration and cooperation, but so far nothing - no
response."

"I feel that kids will do dumb things once they are off
in college and on their own for the first time," Lisa Folden of
Huntsville, Ala., wrote when she signed the petition. "They should not
have to die because they have a lapse in judgment."

The petition aims to establish protocol for responding to
"a mental health or drug-induced emergency," train USA police in
"evidence-based crisis intervention techniques," and establish
procedures for responding to emergency situations on campus then publish those
in student and faculty handbooks.

"I am a RN who works in an emergency room that has a
crisis unit that handles situations that Gil was experiencing," Laura Ladner
of Long Beach, Miss., wrote when she signed the petition. "I believe
crisis intervention teaching is a must for USA police."